ROBERTSON 



503:, 



ROBESPIERRE 



in camp with the troops from India he con- 

 tracted a severe cold which developed into 

 pneumonia, and within twenty-four hours he 

 died, on November 14. F.ST.A. 



ROBERTSON, JOHN Ross (1841- ), a Ca- 

 nadian journalist, founder of the Toronto Eve- 

 ning Telegram, which met with remarkable suc- 

 cess from the beginning and became one of the 

 leading papers of the Dominion. Robertson 

 is also known for his high standing as a Mason, 

 and has written histories of the Freemasons and 

 of the Knights Templars in Canada. Robert- 

 son was born in Toronto, attended Upper 

 Canada College, and after serving his appren- 

 -hip as a reporter, and as editor of a weekly 

 satirical paper which he founded, he was city 

 editor of the Toronto Daily Globe from 1864 

 to 1866. He was one of the founders of the 

 Daily Telegraph, which lasted only six years. 

 Then from 1872 to 1875 he lived in London as 

 correspondent for the Daily Globe. Returning 

 to Canada in 1875 he assumed the business 

 management of Goldwin Smith's Nation, but 

 a year later established the Evening Telegram. 

 In addition to his books on Masonry and his 

 contributions to journalism, he wrote Talks 

 wth Craftsmen and Landmarks of Toronto, 

 and edited the diary of Mrs. John Graves 

 Siracoe. 



ROBESPIERRE, robes pyair, MAXIMILIEX 

 MARIE ISIDORE (1758-1794), one of the most 

 celebrated of the French revolutionists, was 

 born at Arras. He was educated in the col- 

 lege of Arras and the College Louis-le-Grand 

 at Paris and 

 after studying law 

 in the latter 

 city returned to 

 Arras to begin a 

 legal career. He 

 speedily became 

 known as a skil- 

 ful advocate, a 

 man of integrity 

 .in- 1 the possessor 

 of a nat 1 1 

 kin.l that in 1782 

 he resigned a po- 

 is criminal 





ROBESPIERRE 



The fate which he meted 

 judge rather than nut to hundreds of Frenchmen 



pronounce a overtook l 



He was an enthusiastic M u < 1 n t 

 of Rousseau and at the approach of tin- l 



thounht he saw an opportunity to 



MaNl.-h tli,- ideal Micirty which RoiISW'MU h:nl 



described. He therefore began to speak for the 



liberal democratic views then popular among 

 the French middle-classes, and when the Sta 

 General, or National Convention, met at Paris 

 in 1789, he was sent as a representative. 



He had back of him the enthusiastic support 

 of the Jacobins, who believed in severe meas- 

 ures toward royalty, and these partisans saw 

 to it that the common people heard often about 

 his speeches and deeds in their favor. He be- 

 came bold and bitterly opposed the policies of 

 the Girondists, or believers in milder measures 

 toward the nobility. After the storming of the 

 Tuileries he was elected a member of the Com- 

 mune of Paris, and his popularity with the 

 common people gave that organization the 

 strength to carry out its decrees. Then came 

 the trial of Louis XVI, on January 1, 1793, in 

 which Robespierre stood firmly and success- 

 fully for the death sentence, and thus gained 

 the friendship of the radical revolutionist Dan- 

 ton, just then rising to power. 



Four months later Robespierre helped to es- 

 tablish the Committee of Public Safety, and 

 through its work gained ill fame which will 

 doubtless follow him through all history. This 

 committee resolved to crush all dissension at 

 home so that a united country might face its 

 foreign enemies, and to this end the "Terror," 

 or reign of the guillotine, was established. To 

 some extent Robespierre has been unjustly ac- 

 cused of inciting this period of violence. He 

 had but two allies in the committee of twelve, 

 and could not have dictated affairs. Moreover, 

 whatever he permitted was for the purpose of 

 ridding the country of the discontented, who 

 might hamper the ideal society which he firmly 

 believed was coming; while his companions on 

 the committee saw in the wholesale butchery 

 a thorough and rapid way of disposing of their 

 own political enemies. Be that as it may, be- 

 tween June 12 and July 12, 1794, this organiza- 

 tion sent to the guillotine nearly 1.300 people. 



Meanwhile, even his political allies began to 

 fear his power, and the Committee of Public 

 Safety decided to make him the scapegoat for 

 t IK butchery of the Terror. On July 26 he de- 

 fended himself in such a forceful speech that the 

 Convention voted to follow his suggestion of 

 ceasing the wholesale execution, and placed no 

 blame upon him for the record of the terrible 

 weeks which had passed. The next day. how- 

 . his enemies rallied tin -ir forces and caused 

 tho Convention to declare him "out-i<le the 

 l.iw." meaning, practically, an outlaw. During 

 pfctO arrest him at the H<>M .!. V.lle, 

 part of hta jaw was torn away by a bullet, and 



